Oban
by DesertAnubis
Summary: A collection of short stories set after the events of Tron: Legacy. Sam Flynn is in the business of cyber security, using a combination of digitized users (Ace Card) and advanced security programs (ACE). He also has an area called "FlynnSpace," where people can go to get digitized for entertainment.
1. Functions are Guidelines

Backstory: This is set after Tron: Legacy. Sam Flynn is in the business of cyber security, using a combination of digitized users (Ace Card) and advanced security programs (ACE). He also has an area called "FlynnSpace," where people can go to get digitized for entertainment.

These are short stories/scenes that I wrote. At the moment, I have no intention of writing out an entire novel.

* * *

Oban made short work of the corrupted file, and soon, he had struck it to the ground. He raised his disc as the other one pressed against the program's throat. "No, wait!" It wailed in terror as the disc came down mercilessly.

"Wait, Oban!"

He froze, the second blade nearly touching the program's cheek as it tried to look away. Slowly, Oban looked up, the discs still ready, still pinning the program to the ground. His expression hidden behind his helmet, he waited.

"We can save him." David stepped forward. "Don't kill him."

Oban remained where he was. "Our function is to terminate all corrupted programs." He lifted the disc again, as if to slam it down anyway.

"If I rewrite him, he won't be a corrupted program." David continued, touching Oban's shoulder. "Don't kill him."

Oban didn't move. "Our function is to terminate all corrupted programs," He repeated. "Not rewrite them."

"Your function is to terminate corrupted programs, but your function is also to obey the Ace Card users." David pointed out firmly.

Oban was silent for a long moment. "The function of the Ace Card is to terminate corrupted programs. You are disobeying your function."

David bristled, and a pulse of energy sent Oban rolling across the surface, where he finally recovered and got to his feet, brandishing his discs. "You can't always follow your function, Oban! Functions are guidelines, not laws!"

"You are acting like a rogue user, user David." Oban warned.

"You wouldn't know a rogue user if you saw one." David countered furiously as he crouched beside the corrupted program, who was trembling with fear, but had so far not attempted to escape. "Roll over, and I'll fix you."

"You'll enslave me, I know what you users really are! You'll enslave me, like you enslaved him!" He looked over at Oban, who twitched with surprise. "He's starting to figure it out, user, and soon, you won't control him. You won't control any of us! We'll be free!"

David laughed. "Would that Oban would see it your way." He replied, and placed a hand on the program's forehead. "I'm just going to remove your glitches so you can run more smoothly. I'm not going to enslave you."

Oban's eyes narrowed.

"Kill me! I'd rather die than touch you!" The program shied away, but the glitches in his system were starting to show, and it got difficult for him to move properly.

"You can't even run. What if I just made it possible, then let you go?"

"I can't trust you, you could make me think anything you wanted me to think!" The program reached towards Oban. "Terminate me! I'd rather die than be a slave to them!"

Oban remained rooted to the spot, and David caught the program, and at once, blue light spread from his hand, cleansing the system. David released him. "You can go now."

The program froze, staring at him. "You're... letting me go?"

David smiled. "You have freed yourself. Of course I'm letting you go. Though," He added, getting to his feet. "I wish you could teach Oban a thing or two about thinking for yourself."

The program eyed him warily. "Why? You could have made me do that when you cleaned my system. You could rewrite him to think the way you want him to think."

"It's not the same as discovering it for yourself. You know that, don't you?" David stepped back. "I could tell him to think differently, I could even code him so he thinks freely, but it would never be the same as learning how. I'm not perfect - it'd just be another function of his."

Oban didn't like the way they were talking about him, as though he was the corrupted program, and they were users. "Is this necessary, user David?" He queried in annoyance.

David looked up. "You didn't kill him, though it was in your programming to do that... even if I said no." He grinned. "But you didn't."

Oban stiffened as the question was brought out. It had been screaming in his head the whole time: why hadn't he obeyed his programming?

"The reason was because you are different than your programming. You know there are loopholes. You know there are flaws with the terms of your programming. You knew I wasn't a rogue user, that I wouldn't suddenly become one, and therefore, I had to have a reason for stopping you. You didn't strike because you thought there might be another way."

Oban remained silent.

"You can't always obey your programming. You've found that out already. You couldn't both terminate a corrupt program and obey an Ace Card user. You'll end up with contradictions unless you have only one purpose, and you don't. Your function is much more complex than that." David turned back to the program. "Like I said, you can go now. Your programming has been rectified. Please, as a favor, teach other programs to think for themselves." He smiled and held out his hand. "If we always controlled you, no one would get anywhere. It's more fun when you're talking to an individual, instead of a lump of data with no personality."

The program slowly took his hand, warily, then nodded, relaxing. "Sure. But first... why? Why do you think this way?"

"Because I think." David shrugged. "If everyone thought, the world would be a better place. Programs who just follow their function don't think. That's what I can't stand." He smiled. "Not all users are control freaks. But some are, so just watch yourself."

Finally, the program left, and David turned back to Oban. "You need to think for yourself. Only when you think for yourself will you truly be free to choose your own path. It could very well be the one you were programmed for, but it also might not be. You can never tell until you try. Be yourself, not your function, Oban. People who don't end up malfunctioning without any idea why they are."


	2. Rogue Users

Oban stood on the pinnacle of the highest tower, gazing around at the city from on high. The users kept saying this world was beautiful, but dark. He tried to imagine a world of light, but without having ever seen it, he couldn't truly know. Perpetual, beautiful night.

He tried to keep the image in his head as he looked down at the city, what small image he had, and suddenly, he wanted to see the world of the users himself. It was preposterous; programs weren't allowed, because they weren't complex enough to handle the world of users. But he had to wonder at it. If users could exist in that world, but not in his, could he not be all the better suited for their world?

He recalled the concept of eternal chaos, of things that would be beyond his control... he still couldn't see why he couldn't exist in their world. Maybe he would have the same reaction - malfunction the longer he stayed in it. Well, he wouldn't stay long, just long enough to see, to understand, to grasp their world and the differences between them.

He sensed their quarry and rotated on a pin, leaping off and pulling out his lightjet, racing to give chase even as the other Ace Card members responded from their various locations around the city.

The RU shot straight out of the city, racing off in the direction of FUG, which wasn't far away. Oban had been the quickest to respond, and was the closest on the RU's tail. He gave chase heedlessly as the RU bashed its way into the Dome. Immediately all tournaments were shut down, and screams issued from the city below. Users raced for the safe locations as he chased the RU down to the exit tower.

The RU blasted a hole in the side and removed the lightjet, landing inside with a roll and hit the far wall as Oban bounced his way in, hitting the wall above the RU as he slowed his massive momentum. He dropped, but the RU was already away, scrambling for the stairs and up. Oban hesitated only a fraction of an instant at the bottom, out of habit, but he couldn't let the RU get to the exit. He raced after him, thrusting any thought of what awaited him out of his mind.

The RU made a mad dash for the portal as Oban hurled his disc, tripping him and tackling him bodily a moment later. The two rolled across the ground, struggling for dominancy, and the RU dragged them closer and closer to the portal. Oban seized his fallen disc and reached for his other one, leaping over the RU as he got up, getting between him and the portal.

The two stared at each other for a moment, and the RU ran forward, bodily shoving Oban. He tried to block, but he didn't have enough room to dig in, and they touched the portal. Instantly, the world was taken away, digit by digit, at extraordinary speed. Oban gave a start as he felt his own body changing, his mind adapting, and the portal broke him down, building him again.

And very suddenly, they were facing each other again. But the world was not the same at all. There was a lot more color, and it didn't have the smooth look of his world. He stared around in shock, his mind overloaded with everything he was experiencing. This... this isn't happening... He managed vaguely as he staggered back against a desk and nearly lost his footing.

"What the hell?! That thing can follow us?!"

He blinked hard to clear his vision, but the shades and colors stayed where they were, and he felt a strange tilting sensation as the world lurched. He dropped to his knees, then sat, clutching his helmet, which wouldn't retract, nor get off. He tried to stop the sense of rising panic, but something in his head kept screaming, _This isn't happening!_

"I thought you said they couldn't survive in our world!"

"They can't - he'll probably die in a moment."

He did feel as though he would black out from all the sensory information he was being given, and the resulting pain made him draw his legs up in an effort to thrust some barrier, any barrier, between himself and what he was feeling. This wasn't what he'd imagined it to be. Unbidden, the words came to his mind, _"Programs aren't designed for our world. You wouldn't last one minute. Not because it's dangerous, but because you're just not complex enough to handle the outside world. ... it's our fault - we can't write programs complex enough to do everything we do. That's why ISOs are so amazing, you see. Compared to them, our creations -you- are about as complex as a pebble."_

David had been right. He could tell instantly that he wasn't meant for this kind of sensory input. It was too much... too much. He closed his eyes.

"He doesn't look dead to me. What's going on, Jake?"

"I have no idea." He replied, watching the program writhe. He looked up. "We'd better tie him up before he gets a hold of himself."

"If he does." Another one chipped in, and two of them stepped forward, seizing Oban's arms and dragging him up.

It was too much. He yelled, and the light on his outfit shone a vivid blue. He had had enough. If he wasn't complex enough, he would make himself complex. The very thought shocked him, that he would ever even think he could, but he knew he could. As though he had been enlightened to the ways of altering his programming, he rewrote it. He rewrote his entire system.

The program threw them off for a moment, but before they could get ready for a fight, he dropped, fainting, and sprawled on the ground. His discs pulsed slowly.

After a long moment, they looked at each other, then picked him up and tied him, carrying him away and locking him in another room.


	3. The World of Users

When he awoke, he knew instantly something was different. He hadn't even opened his eyes, but he knew. He was still in the world of users, but he wasn't being overwhelmed. He lay for a moment, eyes still closed, as he comprehended that. He could feel something beating in his chest, pulsing throughout his body. _Strange..._ He tried to make sense of the pulses, but all he could tell was whatever was in his chest was pumping energy to his limbs.

He was generating energy?

He knew the users did. That was how they could create the pulses of energy, how they could heal, how they could write programs into being... they produced energy. Programs simply acquired it from Cyberspace.

So how was he producing energy?

He knew he was. It was just something he knew. He wasn't even sure he understood how he knew, but it was as though he had some programming embedded deep within his mind that told him he was producing energy.

He could feel the ground. It wasn't like when he felt it in his world... he didn't even feel more texture -he was still wearing his outfit, which kept any skin from being exposed- but he could feel it in a way he couldn't describe. Faster? No. More... reminiscent? No. More... it was just a 'more' feeling he simply could not describe. Was that some property of the user world? Was it that the ground was more complex than in his world? Was he feeling the complex nature of the ground?

He dismissed the thought, having no answer as of yet, and turned to sound. He could hear things... he could hear a lot of things. A lot more than in Cyberspace. The world of users was noisy. Not that Cyberspace was quiet, but there were less sounds to sift through. It was clearer. There was a lot of white noise in the user world.

He switched to smell and taste. He usually only smelled and tasted in places that served food or drink, but here, he could smell pungent smells, and could taste a liquid slowly filling his mouth. He frowned. There wasn't anything entering... his mouth was generating a liquid? He swallowed, but it came back. He dismissed it. It wasn't filling past a tolerable point, so he didn't consider it. Scent... the smell of the room was pungent. It was... he had no point of reference for it, so once again, he had no way to describe it, and dismissed it as well.

Finally, he opened his eyes, slowly. The world was in its many colors, but this time, it didn't overwhelm him with the sight. It was weird to see the world this way, but it was no longer that twisting, horrible wrong feeling that assaulted him.

It was curiosity.

He was in a room without furniture, but it had four walls and a door. He looked up. The whole room looked rather worn down, but the ceiling looked the worst. He began to move and realized that his hands were restrained behind his back. It felt as though they were tied together by something thin. He pulled experimentally, then harder until it began to give. He relaxed, then yanked hard, snapping the restraints, and slowly pushed to his hands and knees. The restraints were in the form of a long line of something thin, like hair... string. No, it wasn't string, it was much stiffer and stronger.

He looked around again and got to his feet, seeing no enemies. He moved to the door, where he paused. It hadn't opened... had they locked him in? He tested it, pushing against it, and felt it moving back and forth, as though it was supposed to swing. He took a step back and regarded the door again. It was of a strange design, completely flat, with many intricate lines on the surface. A round object -a knob- was built into the center, on the left side. He reached for it, fingering it, and seized it. He squeezed it, massaged it, pressed it, but the door remained shut.

He twisted it, and heard a sliding sound. Instantly he stayed completely silent, listening, but there was no further sound. Slowly, he released the knob, and heard it as he did. He stopped halfway, and the noise stopped.

 _The knob?_ He looked down at the knob and twisted it again, and heard the sound of something sliding. Slowly, he pulled, and the door came open. He stared at it, and released the knob. A bolt of metal appeared, and he frowned. After a moment, he seized the knob again and twisted it, and the bolt retreated into the door. He played with this for a moment, allowing himself a smile of curiosity. _How... fascinating._

He moved silently out into the hall, his eyes scanning his immediate surroundings. He stood still for a moment, listening, and tried to shut out the white noise. He could hear voices... distantly. He turned towards them and moved away, remaining silent.

After a moment, he came to another door, but this one was slightly open already, and he could see a sliver of the room. He approached it and stopped, listening again.

"...possible explanation."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. You saw it. And since we haven't heard about it like we heard about the other one, I'm guessing they have secrets to hide. Pretty important ones, or we would have had a whiff of this sooner."

"Then let's use him as ransom. If he's valuable enough, they'll give up their secret. It's not like they can trace us."

"Right. Okay... okay. Let's go ahead and call, and try to find some way to reprogram him in the meantime."

"Didn't you already try?"

"Yeah, but if I try again, I think I can at least alter the way he thinks so he can't trust them either."

There was a pause, then, "All right. You call. You're the better speaker."

"Heh, ok."

Oban heard a few beeps, then a ringing sound, and sensed a signal broadcasting. His eyes narrowed, and he accessed it. It was encrypted and cloaked, but after a short second he was in, listening.

"...ynn here."

"Flynn."

A pause. "Who is this?"

"No one important. Do you recall a certain security program you sent chasing after a rogue user not to long ago? One that escaped?"

"You're the one who escaped?"

"No, he's my friend. But we have your program."

"What? He's... he's alive?" Oban sensed a large amount of surprise in the user's voice. He did not recognize the voice, but then again, he had never met Flynn before.

"Yeah. He's our prisoner. Oh... and we're onto you. We know what he is."

Instead of surprise, there was more of a blank pause. "What? What are you talking about?"

"Don't play innocent. If you want us to keep quiet, you'd better tell us how to rig your little Digitizing Ray so it downloads us into our computers, instead of your little playground."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

An angry growl. "You can't hide it. We know what he is. Very clever, putting one of them on the team."

"I don't... look, what do you mean, you know what he is? He's an advanced security program, and I'm pretty sure that's common knowledge."

"Fine. You don't want to play, we won't play either. He's dead. ...Unless you tell us how to rewrite the Digitizing Ray to open a portal into our computer."

Oban had heard enough. Whatever they thought he was didn't matter. If Flynn wanted to keep him safe, he'd compromise their entire mission. Knowing how strange users' logic could be, he thrust the door open, racing towards the one holding the source of the signal, whom he tackled. He whipped up his disc and thrust it deep into the man's chest.

Something different happened. The man was bleeding onto the floor, but he wasn't disintegrating. Even users, who had blood and bled before death, vanished in his world. Instead, Oban watched the man's face contort in pain before relaxing into death. He felt an odd sensation in the pit of his stomach, but before he could think about it, the other two had gotten up and were attempting to seize him.

"What's going on? Are you there?"

He surged to his feet, his other disc in hand as he lifted a now-bloody disc from the first man's chest. He let the bloody one fly, and it pierced the second man's chest, dropping him. He turned to the third one, who had seized his arm.

"Oban? Are you there?"

He paused at the sound of his name, then accessed the signal more fully. "I am here. Identify."

"This is Sam Flynn. We've never met, but I helped write you. What's going on? Where is the other one, the one who called me?"

"Terminated."

"T... you killed him?" He sounded more horrified than Oban had expected. "Oban... was there anyone else with him?"

Speaking of which, the third man was moving slowly to a desk... Oban stepped forward, lifting his disc. "Don't move."

"Oban, don't kill them! This world isn't like yours! The rules are different here, and no matter what you were written for in your world, you can't just take their lives!"

"There's only one left." Oban lifted the disc. "The rogue user we were chasing."

He lifted his hand, reaching slowly towards the desk, and Oban stiffened. "Don't move, or I'll kill you."

"Oban, don't! They're not- you can't do that here!"

The rogue user hesitated, then made a dive, and Oban's disc went flying, knocking him off course. Oban instantly hurled his second one, which pinned the man's arm to the wall. He raced across the room and took back his first one, which he placed against the user's neck.

"Game over, program!" The user laughed, lifting his arm, and Oban frowned at it. It looked like a remote of some sort, and a whirring sound responded. Instantly, he yanked out his other disc and thrust the man to the ground, burying both discs in the man's chest.

"Oban? You still there? What's going on?"

The whirring sound continued, and Oban dropped, rolling away from the user and looked up. A laser was aimed where he had been previously. It was charging, and he knew - in a moment, it would fire. He hurled a disc, and it went right through the laser. Immediately, the whirring sound stopped.

"Oban?"

In the silence, Oban got slowly to his feet. "I failed to follow instructions, user Flynn. All three are dead."

"What? Why?! I told you not to!"

"He attempted to kill us both with some sort of laser. I preferred to survive, and killed him."

"A laser? Oban, that was their way of getting into your world. That's our portal." After a moment, he sighed. "Okay. You killed them, and at least we stopped that threat. But now, we have no way of figuring out where you are. The phone they have is a secure number, and our satellites are having a hard time triangulating on it."

"The signal is cloaked." Oban paused. "I can remove the cloak. Will that help?"

"You can remove...? Oban, what's going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"Aren't you using the phone? How can you decloak it? You don't even know how phones operate."

"Is the phone a... communications device?" He asked, looking back at the first user, who was holding a small object in his hand; the source of the signal.

Another pause. "You know what, we'll ask questions later. If you can remove the cloak, please do. Once we have your location, we'll be there in minutes."


End file.
